Spark Architects’ Chongqing Clubhouse Rises in China

The playful Clubhouse in Chongqing is the first part of a series of leisure facilities that Spark Architects designed for a large villa community in the outskirts of Chongqing, China. The clubhouse forms the center point of this leisure route. It functions as a mediating icon that brings residents, visitors, and all the elements of the master plan together.

Spark Architects‘ design aims to embody the site’s steep topography, beautiful greenery and scenic views in the spatial experience of the architecture. The hotel, clubhouse and retail elements become part of a scenic route from a panoramic lookout fifty meters above the community down into the valley. Along this dramatic descent, the program has been carefully placed to respond to the topography and community needs. Thus, in the process of meandering through the landscape, one engages in activities that foster a healthy community and social interaction.

It was formally conceived as a continuous folded loop that pivots from a common double height space. The common space links together the different programmatic elements of the building and can be transformed into a temporary showroom. Surrounding the clubhouse is a shallow reflective lake abundant with carp and lotus. Wooden platforms outline the periphery of the building and bridge across the lake to connect the lobby with the residential villas.

The roof folds down towards the main entry forming outdoor seating, continuing the scenic route along the roof down towards the water. Thus the clubhouse seems to arise from the ground when approaching the main entry, and rising out of the reflecting water surface five meters lower on the opposite side of the building.

This terraced space is echoed in the interior spaces where the visitors enter into a low ceilinged space to descend into the double height space that is now used as the sales room. The materiality aims to blend the building into its natural setting by employing is a simple palette of textured granite and glass.